Global Religious Trends (Are we less religious)

On Friday, I posted about an article I found that suggested that intelligent people are less likely to believe in God. With all the comments I received, it got me wondering about religious trends in general. While none of this is conclusive, it is, however, interesting.

Using Google’s search trends analyzer, I found that search trends for religious words were generally down accross the board. In other words, fewer people are searching on these words today than there were in 2004 (as far back as these trends go). What’s more, all this in the context of an ever-increasing trend toward online usage. In short far more people are online today than in 2004, usage and familiarity with search engines has climbed in that time, broadband and internet access in general has increased, yet fewer people are searching on religious terms.

Could this indicate a reduced global interest in religion in general? Could it be another sign that as society evolves intellectually and scientifically, they push God away in general – trusting more in themselves and their own knowledge?

One possible alternative explination, is that churches in general have been slow to embrace the new medium and build up a suitable online offering. In short, if pickin’s are slim, and search results find little of value, people will stop searching. But is that just the optimist in me? What do you think this means?

Hmmmm. You may be right. it would be interesting to know what events the peaks and valleys correspond to. That might answer some questions. There does seem to be a lot more evil in the world these days, too.

Hey, your research is really interesting, and your blog is fantasitc. I’m a student at BYU Provo majoring in public relations. We are now working on a campaign for the More Good Foundation to have more LDS online bloggers sharing their values and thoughts about the LDS church. Would you mind tell me a little more about how it got you started this blog?